Locally produced sawn softwood sales fell 7.2% year-ended October, sliding to 2.735 million m3. Monthly sales were reported at 243,261 m3 with all producers understood to have reduced production significantly over the last six months. In part to manage volumes, exports were up 75% on the prior year, but are still modest at 59,430 m3 for the year.
Sales of all the key products were lower for the year, with few faring well.
Relative stability in demand for packaging timber (-2.9%) and Landscaping (-2.9%) were the standouts, with the Structural Untreated <120mm grade down a smaller-than-average 4.5%.
It is possibly the limited decline in Structural Untreated grades reflects some reallocation of resource from the Outdoor Domestic category which was down 21.0% and includes Treated H3, a traditionally high value-added product.
There is not especially much to consider in the latest softwood sales data, other than it needs to be viewed in the context of the total apparent consumption picture, including the imports discussed in the trade section of this edition.
Apparent consumption is noticeably lower because imports have deteriorated at a far faster rate than local sales.
